GOP Sen. Mike Braun Hopes Senate Impeachment Trial Is ‘Instructive’ For Trump

Senator Mike Braun (R-Indiana) said on Sunday that he hopes the impeachment trial will be “instructive” to President Donald Trump’s conduct. 

In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Braun was asked by host Chuck Todd about the Trump impeachment trial, which he’s a juror of. When asked about what Trump’s reaction might be like if the Senate acquits him. Todd said, ““This president, as you know, he’s going to take acquittal and think, ‘I can keep doing this.'” 

Braun answered, “No, I don’t think that. Hopefully it’ll be instructive.”

“I think he’ll put two and two together,” the Indiana Republican continued. “In this case, he was taken to the carpet.”

On Sunday morning, it was also reported that an unpublished manuscript obtained from the New York Times from John Bolton that claimed the president tied Ukraine aid to investigations he had asked for. Braun, in response to the breaking news, said that “it’ll be interesting to see what happens” with the new revelation.

Trump was charged by the House on one count of obstruction of Congress for blocking witnesses from testifying and another count of abuse of executive power for withholding foreign aid to pressure a foreign government to investigate a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. 

Braun added that the House Democratic impeachment managers “put together a broad, comprehensive case,” but added that it was  “circumstantial in nature.”

When asked if he believed the president regrets his actions, Braun answered, “I think he’ll be instructed by what has occurred here and certainly any individual would want to avoid whatever might need to be modified to go through this again because the threat has already been out there that we might find something else to impeach on, which I think is a mistake because I think we need to get back to what most Americans are interested in: the agenda.”